Debates about labour markets and the identity of those who, in an economic sense, circulate within them, together with the controversies such issues generate, have in the past been confined by development studies to the Third World. Now these same concerns have shifted, as the study of development has turned its attention to how these same phenomena affect metropolitan capitalist nations. For this reason, the book does not restrict the analysis of issues such as the free/unfree labour distinction and non-class identity to Third World contexts. The reviews, review essays and essays collected here also examine similar issues now evident in metropolitan capitalism, together with their political and ideological effects and implications.

In Marx Matters noted scholars explore the way a Marxian political economy addresses contemporary social problems, demonstrating the relevance of Marx today and outlining how his work can frame progressive programs for social change.

The book constitutes an attempt by Marxist political economy to extricate itself from mistaken attempts to conflate it with the cultural turn, identity politics, bourgeois economics, or varieties of populism and nationalism, together with the danger of not doing so.

Honouring David Fasenfest, who has not only conducted research spanning contexts from Detroit to Shanghai but is also a long-standing editor both of a social science journal and of its related book series, this festschrift addresses issues central to political economy. These range from globalization, employment, migration, social justice, inequality, race/class, and urban poverty to Marxist theory, democracy, capitalism, neoliberalism, and socialism. In keeping with the editorial policy and ideas pursued by the honorand, the contributions emphasize the continuing need on the part of sociology to adopt a radically critical investigative approach to all these issues. Contributors are: Hideo Aoki, Tom Brass, Michael Burawoy, Rodney D. Coates, Kevin R. Cox, Raju J. Das, Ricardo A. Dello Buono, Mahito Hayashi, Lauren Langman, Robert Latham, Ngai Pun and Alfredo Saad-Filho.

Examined here is political discourse about the pattern and desirability of economic development, extending from historical and contemporary views about race, culture, and labour regimes, to how the same themes inform travel writing.

Against the usual argument heard most frequently on the left, that there is no subject for a radical politics together with its form of political mobilization, there is – but in the absence of a radical leftist project, this subject has in the past transferred, and in many instances is still transferring, his/her support to the radical politics on offer from the other end of the ideological spectrum. The combination of on the one hand a globally expanding industrial reserve army, generating ever more intense competition in the labour markets of capitalism, and on the other the endorsement by many on the left not of class but rather of non-class identities espoused by the ‘new’ populist postmodernism, has fuelled what can only be described as a perfect storm, politically speaking.

As a product of its time, the call centre utilises new developments in telecommunications and information technology to offer cost-efficient delivery systems for customer care. Efficiency, productivity and flexibility are all embodiments of neoliberal market capitalism and are all personified in the call centre operation, as well as the structure of the labour market in general. Thus the individual and the workplace are embedded in a variety of global processes. In order to frame the context in which call centre operations exist today and their employees (mainly young men and women) negotiate the increasingly risky and individualised task of developing an identity or sense of belonging in the world, Labour Markets and Identity on the Post-Industrial Assembly Line sets out the economic, social and political changes over the last three decades that have restructured the labour market, altered the balance between labour, management and the state, and unleashed global market capitalism upon previously sheltered areas of the economy and social life in both Britain and elsewhere. This ground-breaking book offers one of the first real qualitative sociological investigations of a relatively new form of employment, to see what life is like on the 'post-industrial assembly line', whilst also taking a close look at the nature of class, identity and subjectivity in relation to young people coming of age in a world dramatically altered over the last three decades.

Controversial Issues in a Disabling Society has been written specifically to raise questions and stimulate debate. It has been designed for use with students in group discussion, and to support in-depth study on a variety of professional courses. It covers a wide range of specific, substantive issues within Disability Studies in a series of succinct chapters. Each chapter sets a question for debate, places the key issues in context and presents a particular argument. This is an accessible and engaging book which challenges dominant positions and ideologies from a social model viewpoint of disability.

This volume forms part of a series on contemporary sociologists. The work of each scholar chosen is internationally recognized and relates to the core of sociology in the 1990s. This text covers the main themes of John Goldthorpe's work, and includes his replies to criticisms of his ideas.

Critics contend that identity economics overemphasizes social identities as drivers of economic activity, potentially obscuring other elements including personal preferences, incentives, and market pressures. Identity-related notions are challenging to measure and quantify meaningfully and rigorously, which is one of the most common criticisms. Identity economics has long been debated by economic scientists and practitioners, but it is still considered to be in its infancy, which also draws attention to the absence of a clear consensus and solid empirical support. This book fills that gap by providing an in-depth analysis of the main claims made in favour of identity economics. It explores the reliability of identity-based explanations, the difficulties with measurement and quantification, concerns about overgeneralization and essentialism, the function of economic institutions, policy implications, a lack of agreement and empirical evidence, and considerations of intersectionality and multidimensionality. The book considers three interrelated aims. Firstly, it familiarizes readers with the concept of Identity Economics. Secondly, and essentially, it persuades a larger audience of the relevance and creativity of this sector, and thirdly, it advocates for the applicability of the approach to the field of knowledge. The focus of the examination centres around these three objectives. Few would argue that identity impacts our decisions but given that solid theory is predicated on good abstraction, the real question is whether we lose anything by excluding identity from the theory. The book skilfully weaves together the literature from several disciplines including regional, gender, labour, social areas of studies, thus academics, students, and researchers in these fields will find the individual contributions useful for their respective areas of study.